Cheltenham Symphonies

[albion]

Ironically enough, I can't recall there actually being a Cheltenham Symphony - there are London (VW), Norwich (Edward German), Nottingham (Alan Bush), Guildford (Geoffrey Bush) and assorted English-, Irish-, Scottish- and Welsh-themed ones ...

[eschiss1]

and Cotswold (Holst)!

A quick search reveals a "Cheltenham symphony: A Youth symphony" by "Henry K. Williams" (about whom I know nothing at this time- alive in the 1950s).

[albion]

I knew if there was anybody that could find one, you would! - Here's to it's premiere recording on Dutton c.2045.

[Dundonnell]

Haydn's Oxford Symphony(No.92) and London Symphony(No.104), Parry's Cambridge Symphony(No.2), Alwyn's Manchester Suite, Bliss's Edinburgh Overture and Lancaster Prelude and Howard Blake's Violin Concerto "The Leeds" spring to mind

[albion]

Nah, trust me (I'm a lapsed-librarian) - Henry K. Williams is the one they'll all be talking about long after Haydn, Parry, Bliss and (come to mention it) Alwyn, Jones, Bate, Arnell, Fricker and Rawsthorne have all been consigned to the purifying flames of oblivion.



There are some great adverts in the Festival programmes - a 1950 advert for Midlands Electricity boldly declares

YES - WE CAN DO IT

TO HOUSEWIVES

We can supply your essential electrical requirements from stock, such as cookers, kettles, irons,
waterheaters, washing machines, vacuum cleaners, washboilers, and even radio in some districts.

"RADIO - Marjorie, why in heaven's name would you want one of those damn things - ah, now I see, you've been sneaking round to the neighbours house again to listen to that Cheltenham muck!"

[eschiss1]

they'll have to find more than 2 works by Hank (may I call him Hank?) (no baseball ref intended) then.

[Gareth Vaughan]

The score and parts for Mr Williams' "Cheltenham Symphony" are in the Fleisher Collection - 4 movts, paginated separately:
ms. score (50, 24, 16, 60) + parts
1. Allegro moderato con brio -- 2. Adagio. Theme and variations -- 3. Scherzo. Vivace -- 4. Moderato ; Allegro con fuoco.
2-fl, 1-pc, 2-ob, 1-eh, 2-cl, 2-bn, 4-hn, 3-tpt, 3-trb, 1-tb, tmp, prc, str.

There is also a Symphony for Strings.

[albion]

I'm quite frankly amazed at the lack of information regarding the Cheltenham Festival, considering its cultural importance, either in print or online. The Festival site itself has next to nothing about the history, and various standard reference publications just give scanty summaries, not bothering to mention the vast majority of significant works first performed from 1945 onwards. Grove is typical -

Annual summer mus. fest. held (usually in July) in spa of Cheltenham, Eng. Begun in 1945 as a fest. of Brit. contemporary mus. but scope widened in 1969 to embrace contemporary mus. of other nationalities. Many post‐ 1945 Brit. chamber works, concs., and syms. (hence the expression 'a Cheltenham Symphony') received f.ps. at the fest., many of them from Hallé Orch., cond. Barbirolli, who gave bulk of orch. concerts 1947 – 61 . Among operas premièred at the fest. was Judith Weir's A Night at the Chinese Opera ( 1987 ). First dir. G. A. M. Wilkinson , 1944 – 69 . Programme dir. John MANDUELL 1969 – 94 . Michael BERKELEY 1995 – 2004 ; Martyn Brabbins from 2005

Hardly worth bothering to write, really.



This thread is clearly still very much a work in progress.

[albion]

I've just received a copy of the following (fairly) recent book -

Graham Lockwood: Cheltenham Music Festival at 65 - A perspective on its Theme and Variations (Lockwood, 2009, 110 pp)

At first glance it seems a bit light on the early decades of the Festival, but it is nevertheless very well-written, well-produced and has a number of interesting illustrations. In view of the dearth of publications on the subject it is recommended.

Copies can be obtained from the Holst Birthplace Museum in Cheltenham for £5.00 plus p&p -

http://www.holstmuseum.org.uk/contact.htm

[albion]

Members who have been following this thread will be aware that I have an interest in the history of the Cheltenham Music Festival and have been attempting (gradually) to compile a list of significant premiere performances which have taken place since the event began in 1945.

I have been in contact with the Festival administration department and they have very kindly supplied me with an extremely useful and comprehensive spreadsheet which lists first performances from the inception of the Festival to date.

For the research interest of members, I have uploaded a copy and provided a link to this document on the Downloads board.

[Cheltenham Music Festival]

Dear Posters,

I've rather belatedly become aware of this thread, and wanted to make it known that here at Cheltenham Music Festival we do have an archive of programme books and brochures (outlined on the concert programmes database here: http://www.concertprogrammes.org.uk/html/search/verb/GetRecord/8216/)

We have also updated the "Reminiscences" book referred to above (a Cheltenham Music Festival in-house production, hence the lack of a publisher - sadly there are only a handful of copies remaining) by way of a 2014, 70th-Festival release called 'Cover Story' listing all the premieres at the Festival and reproducing the cover artwork from each year.

During the past four years I've been chipping away at making sense of the materials we have - cataloging scores (some autograph), live archive recordings and occasional photographs but much remains unsorted and I've no doubt we're yet to discover some treasures. 

Although we have no formal archive or research space, I'm very happy to arrange access to the collections (and to share spreadsheets of the materials we have sorted)  on a case-by-case basis (I just need to arrange a time when we can provide you with desk space to look at what we have) and to discuss our resources with anyone who is interested in the Festival's history. I've set up this account so that you can email us directly via this username.

Due to some serious flooding at the Festival's previous Town Hall offices, I fear that much early material - particularly photographs - may have been damaged or destroyed, but I'm hopeful that duplicate materials may survive on other public or private collections. There is clearly a wealth of knowledge and enthusiasm on this forum, and I'd welcome any contributions that can alert us to the whereabouts of other materials relating to the Festival - I'm beginning to collate a list of collections that make reference to Cheltenham with the ambition of making this a useful resource for future researchers interested in the Festival.

Many thanks, Alexis (Music Festival Manager, 2011- )

[Mark Thomas]

Alexis, thanks for this. However, since the last post in this thread UC has revised its focus to one which concentrates on the romantic era, and music written in the "romantic" vein, which will exclude many of the "Cheltenham" symphonies. If you haven't already done so, I suggest that you repeat your post at the Art Music Forum, which has amongst its membership some of the posters in this thread who are no longer members of UC.